I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronics, and more specifically to amplifiers.
II. Background
A wireless device (e.g., a cellular phone or a smartphone) in a wireless communication system may transmit and receive data for two-way communication. The wireless device may include a transmitter for data transmission and a receiver for data reception. For data transmission, the transmitter may modulate a local oscillator (LO) signal with data to obtain a modulated signal, amplify the modulated signal to obtain an output radio frequency (RF) signal having the proper transmit power level, and transmit the output RF signal via an antenna to a base station. For data reception, the receiver may obtain a received RF signal via the antenna and may amplify and process the received RF signal to recover data sent by the base station.
A wireless device may include amplifiers of different types for different purposes. For example, a wireless device may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) in a receiver, a power amplifier (PA) in a transmitter, and a variable gain amplifier (VGA) in the receiver and/or transmitter. An amplifier may need to meet various requirements related to gain, linearity, etc. An amplifier having configurable gain and high linearity is highly desirable.